I am trying to figure out how to use sound on this system. There are two vaguely relevant answers that I have found on the web, but neither seems to be good. One solution involves changing files in /usr/share (need I say more) and the other is only relevant to systems with audio hardware supported by different modules.

That's right, the device order determines which device to use as the 'default' device, at least from ALSA's pov. I have an AMD A8 APU and my immediate need was to get analog audio from the green 3.5mm jack on my box. To that end this should help:

Run the grep and ls commands above to determine your card order. In this example ALSA script (thanks ALSA wiki) I set the card name "Generic_1" as 'default'. (M2496 is a add-on) If you save this example as '~/.asoundrc' and edit as needed it should work next time you login.

I tried tweaking the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf to change card order as per the ALSA wiki. Though I could affect the order I just couldn't get the ALC892 as 'card zero'. Perhaps the presence of M2496 got in the way.

That's right, the device order determines which device to use as the 'default' device, at least from ALSA's pov. I have an AMD A8 APU and my immediate need was to get analog audio from the green 3.5mm jack on my box. To that end this should help:

Run the grep and ls commands above to determine your card order. In this example ALSA script (thanks ALSA wiki) I set the card name "Generic_1" as 'default'. (M2496 is a add-on) If you save this example as '~/.asoundrc' and edit as needed it should work next time you login.

I tried tweaking the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf to change card order as per the ALSA wiki. Though I could affect the order I just couldn't get the ALC892 as 'card zero'. Perhaps the presence of M2496 got in the way.

I haven't tried HDMI yet. Or SPDIF (iec958).

shrike

Great! Creating the ~/.asoundrc file with the entries you suggested solved the issue. I did not even have to log out to make it work. I did have to make a minor modification: the line:
slave dsp
was not accepted. I took this out and it worked!

I should also mention that the command "aplay -D default <some wave file>" helped me to find the issue in the ~/.asoundrc file:

Big OOps.. the erroneous 'slave dsp' line reminded me that I had problems opening more than one sound app (flash, mplayer, etc) at a time. I found a 'dmix' plugin example and added 'Generic_1'. This is my current .asoundrc file which allows me to have multiple sound apps open at the same time:

That's right, the device order determines which device to use as the 'default' device, at least from ALSA's pov. I have an AMD A8 APU and my immediate need was to get analog audio from the green 3.5mm jack on my box. To that end this should help:

Run the grep and ls commands above to determine your card order. In this example ALSA script (thanks ALSA wiki) I set the card name "Generic_1" as 'default'. (M2496 is a add-on) If you save this example as '~/.asoundrc' and edit as needed it should work next time you login.

I tried tweaking the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf to change card order as per the ALSA wiki. Though I could affect the order I just couldn't get the ALC892 as 'card zero'. Perhaps the presence of M2496 got in the way.

I haven't tried HDMI yet. Or SPDIF (iec958).

shrike

Great! Creating the ~/.asoundrc file with the entries you suggested solved the issue. I did not even have to log out to make it work. I did have to make a minor modification: the line:
slave dsp
was not accepted. I took this out and it worked!

I should also mention that the command "aplay -D default <some wave file>" helped me to find the issue in the ~/.asoundrc file: